Orbiter Spaceport

Clearing a large backlog of released realistic add-ons over the last two years. I'll start with the cancelled moon missions based on the Apollo AMSO add-on for Orbiter. Flowing the general outline of the available NASA planning documents I did Apollo 18, 19 and 20, complete with terrain, patches and EVAs. Vallis Schroteri & Apollo 18 This add-on features realistic terrain for the Vallis Schröteri area near the Aristarchus crater on the Moon. It is presented in a way that you have a relatively large flat area (Orbiter limitation) where you can land and drive.  The area covered by terrain mesh is about 30x30km. Some surface features were placed to provide interesting destinations for EVAs, based on the actual geology of the region. The provided scenarios use AMSO to recreate the proposed Apollo 18 mission. They are generic and the orbital trajectories are not optimized regarding fuel or mission duration. Anyhow, I think I've remained within realistic paramete...

I did a series of add-ons that depict the planned Skylab B international space station, a follow up to the historical US Skylab program. In reality the Skylab B hardware exists and is on museum display. It was identical to the flown Skylab, since it was its flight spare. For this add-on, an alternate reality is considered, based in several proposals by NASA made in the 1970's. The main changes are the lack of the Solar Observatory, the additional docking ports for Soviet spacecraft, and the alternate solar panel positions. This configuration would allow the station to accommodate extended docking or servicing by Apollo, Soyuz, Progress, Salyut and eventually the Space Shuttle. Besides the Skylab B station, the addon also has a AMU "jetpack", a LEM derived Apollo Telescope Mount, a Resupply Module, EVAs and custom cargo, and even a Skylab-Soyuz mission scenario! Skylab B pack

Great to see my Constellation Orion CEV capsule in this video!

Although silent, I'm quite busy working the Skylab B series of add-ons! They depict the planned Skylab B international space station, a follow up to the historical US Skylab program. In reality the Skylab B hardware exists and is on museum display. It was identical to the flown Skylab, since it was its flight spare. For this add-on, an alternate reality is considered, based in several proposals by NASA made in the 1970's. The main changes are the lack of the Solar Observatory, the additional docking ports for Soviet spacecraft, and the alternate solar panel positions. This configuration would allow the station to accommodate extended docking or servicing by Apollo, Soyuz, Progress, Salyut and eventually the Space Shuttle. There's a basic “virtual cockpit” with the "Wardroom Window", that faces sideways from the station, so you will have to turn the viewing direction to look outside. Besides the initial Skylab B add-on ( http://ww...

Working :-)

This add-on for Orbiter Space Flight Simulator will add a Virtual Cockpit to the ISS Zvezda module. Although complete, the mesh is a little basic on some parts, nevertheless I feel it's good enough for release. As such, I simply added it to an existing Zvezda add-on- the "Zvezda-J" add-on by jekka. There are 2 visible MFDs (on the TORU workstation) and a HUD display over the periscope. This 3D virtual cockpit model is more of a resource for developers than a complete add-on. Feel free to include it on your space-station add-ons and to improve upon it. Get it here:  http://www.orbithangar.com/searchid.php?ID=6083

Brazilian Space Program for Orbiter v2, including the Alcantara Launch Center (CLA) , the VLS-1 satellite launche r (Veículo Lançador de Satélites), the VLM-1 microsatellite launcher (Veículo Lançador de Microssatélites), a Microsatellite , the VS-40 sounding rocket and the SARA reentry experiment . Current version release notes: Improved VLS detailed mesh and textures, now using normal maps for high resolution light effects on the latest graphic clients for Orbiter.   Improved textures with normal maps for the VLM-1, VS-40 and SARA.   Expanded the Alcântara Base, that now features details such as trees, terrain and various structures. Instead of adding new surface bases to Orbiter, this implementation builds upon my “Stock Orbiter default bases upgrade” add-on, only replacing (and improving upon) the Alcantara one. Notice: please remove the Alcantara_CLA.cfg and Base_de_Alcantara.cfg base config files from your Orbiter installation, if install...

VS-40 rocket launch: Launch test of my VS-40 sounding rocket add-on for Orbiter Space Flight Simulator. It features a complete surface base, detailed textures with normal-maps and accurate flight behaviour programmed in LUA, including roll induced by the tail fins. Buran aerotester virtual cockpit:  Working instrument implementation using LUA scripting in Orbiter Space Flight Simulator

Here are some illustrations for the Brazilian Space Program add-on documentation. They show the VLS-1 rocket configuration (labeled in English and Portuguese) and the launch profile with approximate times.

Besides the well know Kennedy Space Center or Baikonur launch sites, there are many other such places around the world. Some of them aren't used for rocket launches, it they played an important role in space history, or are part of current aerospace activities. As part of the development of my Orbiter stock bases upgrade add-on, I've done some research regarding this sometimes little know sites. My objective was to provide high resolution surface tiles for each base and to represent, using the stock base objects, the main structures present. I'll share here some interesting places I discovered. Matagorda was considered as a possible location for NASA's spaceport, along with places like Cape Canaveral... While it was not chosen in reality, it's still featured as a space base in some Ben Bova books. In reality, two close airfields exist at that location, one of them related to private space firms in the 1970s.   Matagorda Island AFB   Matagorda...

Some images of the final Launch Center model fully textured. Really happy with the results, specially with the vegetation, since my goal was to make a low polygon model for easy export to Orbiter simulator. General view of the two pads: left for sounding rockets, right for the VLS and VLM VLS-1 rocket on pad. The TMI (Mobile Integration Tower) is retracted to a safe distance. After a successful export, here's the Alcantara Launch Center in Orbiter, with the VLS ready to launch.  Alcantara Launch Center in Orbiter

I've finished modeling the VLS rocket. Here's what it looks like in SketchUp after texturing! After export, the model in Orbiter Space Simulator looks like this: Very consistent. I'm using the DX9 renderer, and I've yet to add normalmaps! As I'm happy with the way it looks already, here's an image sequence of a test launch. VLS lifts-off from Alcantara Ascending on first stage, after booster separation Ascending on first stage VLS rocket ascending on first stage. This configuration was the basis for the early VLM project. Second stage ignites. VLS rocket upper stages. Detail of the upper stage attitude control systems and fairing A small satellite is successfully released in orbit!